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Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game Thursday night against the Texans.

Yet he came close to willing the Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.

The quarterback endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.

We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”

Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. The QB threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.

Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it isn't a good way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”

Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.

“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I need to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”

The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.

The Bills competed for a second straight game absent receiver Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a team session.

No change. We are taking it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”

Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.

Allen was frustrated that the Bills were unable to execute down the stretch.

“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”